Immigration

Simona Perry, an applied anthropologist has been collecting data on rural families living amid Pennsylvania's gas boom since 2009. Families told her that they could not share their experiences due to nondisclosure agreements with the gas companies. Families suffering from headaches, nosebleeds, burning eyes and sore throats as drilling operations expanded on their land and in their neighborhood are not able to tell their neighbors. Regulations prevent doctors and researchers from gathering the data they need to analyze the health and environmental impacts of fracking, and the nondisclosure agreements silence whole communities living near the rigs.

Chemicals used in fracking fluid and their concentrations are often exempt from disclosure because they are considered trade secrets. Other exemptions buried in state and federal law allow drillers to avoid disclosing contents of fracking fluids returning from deep underground.

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MN's Leading Election System

With Secretary of State Steve Simon

Listen to Secretary of State Steve Simon's excellent presentation on MN's outstanding election system emulated by many other states at the Think Again Brooklyns forum January 19, 2016. Secretary Simon includes ways in which it can be improved, and he explains why it is important to vote. He concludes with a quote from a tee shirt: "Failure to vote is not an act of rebellion. It is an act of surrender."

In January, Oregon became the first state in the country to begin automatically registering eligible citizens to vote when they obtain or renew their driver's licenses or state IDs, completely shifting the burden of voter registration from the individual to the government.